The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #73653

Etienne Krug, MD, MPH, Director, Injuries and Violence Prevention, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland, 004 1 22 791 3535/3480, kruge@who.int

Each year, more than 1.6 million people worldwide lose their lives to violence, and many more suffer from a range of physical, sexual, reproductive, and mental health problems or injuries related to violence. Because it is so pervasive, violence is often seen as an inevitable part of the human condition, and the role of health professionals has been limited to dealing with the consequences. The World Health Organization has published its first World Report on Violence and Health in the attempt to challenge the taboos, feelings of inevitability, and customary responses that have surrounded violent behavior, and to encourage the debate that will increase our understanding as to how we might tackle the hugely complex problem. Encouraged by the success of public health approaches to other environmental and behavioral-related health problems, the Report tries to raise the awareness that violence is a global public health problem and not only a problem for the police and justice departments, military commanders, and international security councils, while recommending an increase in the level of response taken by the public health community to preventing violence, so as to create a better match between the burden of disease due to violence and the resources invested in preventing it.

Learning Objectives:

• At the end of this session participants will:
• Describe how the public health approach seeks not to replace the criminal justice system but to complement its activities and to offer additional tools and sources of collaboration;
• Evaluate violence prevention measures that require a more comprehensive, holistic, and multidisciplinary approach;
• List the World Health Organization’s proposed four broad categories of an analytical framework of violence: (a) self-directed violence; (b) interpersonal violence, (c) careless risk-taking behaviors (often mis-labeled as "accidental"); and (d) collective or political violence (war, terrorism, genocide). An additional, even broader categorization might include structural (as opposed to behavioral) violence, which would refer to the increased rates of death and disability that are caused by the social and economic structure of any given society, i.e., its hierarchical stratification into richer and poorer groups.

Keywords: Violence Prevention, International Public Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.